The importance of having and managing goals

I do believe in the importance of setting goals and proactively building your life to reach them. Don’t let luck, random events, bad luck or others run your life. And of those four, I think letting others run your life with their beliefs, emotions, and ideas, is probably the worst one. Yes, having a network of good people around you is important for your success. But for this to work positively, make sure you are surrounded by persons that do believe in you, your talents, and your dreams.

In a discussion, many can say that they have goals. They are more ideas, or dreams, or wishes. If you have goals, it is important to write them down. It forces you to think and clarify your thoughts. It is always easy to think that an idea is clear in our mind. In the solitude and perfection of our minds, it is always easy to be convinced by ourselves. However, when we try to write it down, it often identifies the weaknesses or areas that could benefit from further clarification. It also forces action.

Action is what makes a goal achievable. And it is even more important to watch them daily, and ensure that we are in motion on all of them. An action must be done daily for important goals, less often for other goals. But it is important to have at least one action per week. Otherwise, is it really a goal or a dream. Because what is the difference between a goal and a dream? Actions. The actions that we take.

In addition to being SMART, I find it important that a goal is stated positively. The mind is not good at seeing negative. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s me… What if I ask you to not see a pink elephant in your head? The most likely result is that you saw… a pink elephant.

Achieving your goals requires actions and effort. Pure luck is not a good source of success, neither is staying in the comfort zone of your dreams.

Finally, in a strange way, a key requirement to achieve your goals is to focus and limit the number of goals you have. You can only do so much, and we are all equal regarding time. Rich or poor, lucky or not, we all have 24 hours in a day.